New Xbox 360 dashboard will get Bing, YouTube and cloud storage

The Xbox 360 dashboard will receive a complete redesign this year (its second since
launch), with Kinect integration, better game invites, cloud
storage for saved games, YouTube videos and Bing Search.

The fresh, minimalist layout looks like the optional
Kinect menu on current 360s, and has splashes of Windows Phone 7 and Windows 8. All your content is arranged
in titles and panels, which will apparently make it "simpler,
cleaner and easier to navigate" with a controller, Kinect gestures
or voice commands.

The dashboard will sport Bing voice searches, too, which
works like the iPhone's spotlight search to browse through all the
content on your hard drive and across the Xbox 360's handful of
services, such as Zune music, movies and Xbox Live
Marketplace.

"Beacons" are a new way to invite friends to games. You
chuck out a beacon to let pals know you're looking for cannon
fodder in Halo or Call of Duty. It will then tell all your 360 and Facebook
friends that you're hunting for opponents and they can easily join
in.

Cloud storage lets you sync personal media -- your gamercard,
full profile and save games -- into the cloud for easy access on
any machine. Sony recently introduced cloud save storage to its
premium PlayStation Plus subscription, as did Valve with its Steam
Cloud service.

Xbox Live TV lets you watch video content from a variety of
services, including YouTube, sweaty man-fighting (UFC) and, in the UK, Sky. It's
all done through voice commands if you've got a Kinect so just
shout out a channel or content type to jump to a new
programme.

The new Xbox 360 dashboard will be available "later this year". It'll
be free for all users, but you'll probably have to shell out for
Xbox Live Gold if you want access to most of the new
content.

If you're clamouring for more Xbox Live Arcade games,
Microsoft has you covered. The publisher will hold its fourth
annual Summer of Arcade event -- a strictly-curated five week
line-up of gems -- to get you through gaming's summer dry
spell.

They're joined by From Dust, a gorgeous god game
from Another World designer Eric Chahi, and RPG
Bastion, which apparently "redefines storytelling" as a
reactive narrator blabs about your every move.

As the summer goes on expect to see Trenched and
action-RPG Crimson Alliance. In the autumn you'll be able
to download Ms. Splosion Man, dirt-biking sequel
Trials Evolution and Kinect-enabled world-builder Minecraft. Mental marionette shooter The
Gunstringer will appear before 2011 is out, too.

Comments

Bing was a MASSIVE let down, it IS NOT a browser, it is a XBOX MARKETPLACE SEARCH ENGINE.This is terrible.Can't believe I had my hopes up for Microsoft, might switch to PS3 nao.

Angry Guy

Dec 7th 2011

Its sweet. No YouTube yet. Wonder if its free? I bought one of those media boxes that was a joke. 5bucks a month. Nah ill watch it free in the PC. Hate on bitches

dntaskdnttell

Dec 8th 2011

what time youtube comes out on xbox 360 anyone know

masi

Dec 9th 2011

Finally they did the update but they left out the best YouTube this sucks gots to wait again for the other update:(

Pridegab

Dec 9th 2011

when is youtube goona be here? oh and the bing thing is retarded totally disappionted me...

darin

Dec 9th 2011

cant see the point of having bing as its not acting as a proper internet broswer just for searching content on your xbox i.e games,movies etc...will microsoft actually allow surfing the net?

neil

Dec 10th 2011

add my gametag:Narutoking5838

malik

Dec 13th 2011

In reply to malik

you guys are'nt real gamer uh you guy dont know how to read game informers it said youtube was gonna come out sometime from today and chrismas besides the new update was gonna come out on chrismas but their were to many people that didnt have patient but you guys should be great fulto company microsoft.

VictheDic

Dec 13th 2011

Seriosuly Im Just Wanting Youtube Waiting for it since a year :D .... It wil be more fun as Youtube Users can now release movies too on youtube :DDD